Vampire Academy
by cait83
Summary: What if Rose had been training outside of the Academy?


Author note: Ever since I saw the film and then went and read the books one thing has been nagging in my mind and finally the thought wouldn't let me be if I didn't put pen to paper... This idea has been done before but this is my version of this particular what if. What if Rose had been training during their time away from the Academy? First chapter is basically a transcript of VA ch 1 with some minor changes. I will be using a lot of the dialogue from the book and maybe some stuff from the film. Please read and review!

I don't own anything here, just borrowing the characters for a while.

The sun was warm on my skin and so were the strong male hands that rubbed sun tan lotion onto my back. The sound of waves breaking against the sand made a calming background noise. Without warning, this soothing paradise turned into a nightmare. The horrible sounds of twisting metal, breaking bones and her screams pierced my calm. The smell of warm sand and ocean salt was replaced by the smells of fire and blood. The horror of it all froze me, images suffocating me, until some small rational part of my brain reminded me that this wasn't _my_ dream, it was her. I forced myself awake and bolted over to her bed, my best friend Lissa, who was still trapped in the nightmare of our past.

"Liss.. Liss, wake up", I said, shaking her to wake her.

Her screams quieted into a moan for her lost family before she began to wake up. She leaned into me, seeking comfort that I would gladly give her any day of the week. My arm wrapped around her as I gently ran a hand over her hair.

"It's ok" I told her gently. "Everything's ok"

"I had that dream"

"Yeah, I know"

I sat there, gently caressing her hair, for several minutes until I felt her slowly calming. As soon as she was calm enough, I shifted and turned on the lamp on the nightstand. It was weak but gave enough light to chase away the shadows of the nightmare. My eyes followed the shape of Oscar, our housemate's cat, as he made his way over to Lissa. As usual he stayed as far away from me as possible. His presence helped and I felt Lissa calm further as she caressed the purring little furrball.

"When did we last do a feeding?" I asked, knowing she tended to get these nightmares when she got hungry. Things had been hectic the past couple days so I struggled to remember how many days had passed since last time. "It's been like… more than two days, hasn't it? Three? Why didn't you say anything?"

She avoided my eyes and just shrugged. "You were busy. I didn't want to –"

"Screw that" I said and quickly shifted to a better position on the bed next to her. Oscar immediately leaped down and over to the window sill where he could watch at a safe distance from me. "Come on. Let's do this"

"Rose –"

"Come on. It'll make you feel better" I tilted my head and pulled my hair away to bare my neck for her. I saw her hesitation, but the temptation of what my neck offered proved to powerful. A hungry expression crossed her beautiful features, and her lips parted ever so slightly, exposing the fangs she normally kept hidden. Those fangs contrasted oddly with the rest of her features. With her pretty face and pale blond hair she looked more like and angel than a vampire.

The bite was over in less than a minute but it felt like hours and as always it left me in a drowsy half euphoric state. The pure, refined pleasure, making me lose track of the world around me. I hated the feeling just as much as I loved it and I could fully understand how a person could get addicted to the bite.

As she pulled back she wiped her lips lightly and studied me to make sure I wasn't hurt. "You ok?"

"I… yeah" I lay back on the bed, dizzy from the blood loss and the euphoria. "I just need to sleep it off. I'm fine"

Her pale, jade-green eyes watched me with concern. She stood up. "I'm going to get you something to eat"

I tried to muster a protest, to let her know it wasn't necessary, but she was gone before the words reached my lips. I still felt slightly buzzed and a goofy smile crossed my lips as I looked over to Oscar on the window sill.

"You don't know what you're missing" I told him and almost giggled at my own goofiness. His attention was on something outside. Hunkering down into a crouch he puffed out his jet-black fur. His tail started twitching.

This set off alarms in me and I forced myself to sit up. Oscar was normally an easy going cat who loved everyone except me and anyone who could pose a danger to Lissa. If he was upset then something was up. The world spun as I got up and I forced myself to wait for it to right itself before I could stand and head over to him. I was dizzy and felt slightly weak, a feeling I detested, but I was okay enough to move.

The street outside our window was dark and relatively quiet. It was three in the morning, just about the only time a college campus quieted down, at least somewhat. I looked around at the neighbourhood to find what Oscar was looking at and finally found it. There, in the shadows of our yard, stood a man watching me.

I jerked back in surprise and nearly cursed at myself. He was standing about thirty feet away in a spot where he could easily see through the window. He was close enough that he could have seen what Lissa and I had just done. How could I have forgotten to check the perimeter before letting her feed. How could I have been so sloppy?

The shadows covered him so well that even with my heightened sight I couldn't make out any of his features, save for his height. He was tall. Really tall. He stood there for just a moment, barely discernible, and then stepped back, disappearing into the shadows cast by the trees on the far side of the yard. I was pretty sure I saw someone else move nearby and join him before the blackness swallowed them both. Whoever they were, if Oscar didn't like them that meant they were a threat.

Backing up from the window I jerked on a pair of jeans that I found on the floor, nearly falling over in the process. I cursed my dizziness. This was not going to be easy if I couldn't get a grip soon. Once the jeans were on, I grabbed mine and Lissa's coats along with our wallets. Shoving my feet in the first pair of shoes I saw and then headed out the door.

I followed the feeling of her and found her in the cramped kitchen, rummaging through the refrigerator. One of our housemates, Jeremy sat at the table, hand on his forehead as he stared sadly at a calculous book. Lissa looked over at me with surprise.

"You shouldn't be up"

"We have to go. Now"

Her eyes went wide and she looked bewildered until a moment later when understanding set in. "are you… really? Are you sure?"

I nodded. I couldn't explain to her how I knew, I just knew.

Jeremy regarded us with curiosity. "What's wrong?"

An idea came to mind. "Liss, get his car keys"

He looked back and forth between us. "What are you –"

Without hesitation, Lissa walked over to him. Her fear poured into me through our bond, but there was something else too: her complete faith that I would take care of everything, that we would be safe. As always that faith in me had me humbled and I hoped I'd be worthy of it this time.

She smiled and gazed directly into his eyes. For a moment, Jeremy just stared, still confused, and then I saw the thrall seize him. His eyes glazed over, and he regarded her adoringly.

"We need to borrow your car," she said in a gentle voice. "Where are your keys?"

He smiled, and I couldn't help shivering. I had a high resistance to compulsion, but I could still feel its effects when it was directed at another person. That, and of course I had been taught my entire life that using it was wrong. Reaching into his pocket, Jeremy handed over a set of keys hanging on a large red key chain.

"Thank you, and where is it parked?" Lissa smiled at him.

"Down the street," he said dreamily. "At the corner. By Brown." Four blocks away.

"Thank you," she repeated while backing up. "As soon as we leave, I want you to go back to studying. Forget you ever saw us tonight."

He nodded obligingly. From the look on his face, I got the impression he would have walked off a cliff for her right then if she'd asked. All humans had a certain level of susceptibility to compulsion, but Jeremy appeared weaker than most. That came in handy at this moment.

"Come on," I told her. "We've got to move."

We stepped outside, heading toward the corner he'd named. I could still feel the effects of the bite and cursed myself as I kept stumbling, unable to move as quickly as I wanted. Lissa even had to catch a hold of me a few times to stop me from falling over. All the time, that anxiety rushed into me from her mind. I tried my best to ignore it; I had my own worries to deal with.

"Rose… What are we going to do if they catch us?" she whispered.

"They won't. I won't let them." I said fiercly.

"But if they've found us –"

"They found us before. They didn't catch us then. We'll just drive over to the train station and go to LA. They'll lose the trail."

I made it sound simple. I always did, even though there was nothing simple about being on the run from the people we'd grown up with. We'd been doing it for two years, hiding wherever we could and just trying to finish high school. Our senior year had just started, and living on a college campus had seemed safe. We were so close to freedom.

She said nothing more, and I felt her faith in me surge up once more. This was the way it had always been between us. I was the one who took action, who made sure things happened – sometimes recklessly so. She was the more reasonable one, the one who thought things out and researched them extensively before acting. Both styles had their uses, but at the moment, recklessness was called for. We didn't have time to hesitate.

"Do you hear that?" she asked suddenly. It took me a few seconds to pick up what she meant. Footsteps, moving fast. I grimaced. We had two more blocks to go and I was in no condition to be able to fight our way free.

"We've got to run for it," I said, catching hold of her arm.

"But you can't –"

"RUN"

It took every ounce of my willpower to make myself move. My body didn't want to run after losing blood or while still metabolizing the effects of that bite. But, I ordered my muscles to stop bitching at me and clung to Lissa as we ran as fast as we could. Normally, I could have outrun her without any extra effort but tonight, she was the only thing holding me upright and making me keep going.

The footsteps got louder, closer. I fought for breath and could just make out Jeremy's green Honda in front of us. Please God let us make it –

Just a few feet from the car, a man stepped into our path. I jerked Lissa back by her arm as we came to a halt. It was _him_ , the guy I'd seen watching us. My eyes took him in and measured him automatically. He was tall as I had guessed, probably six-six or six-seven, and older than us, maybe mid-twenties. Under other circumstances – say, when he wasn't in the way of our escape route – I would have thought he was hot. Shoulder length brown hair, tied back in a short ponytail. Dark brown eyes. A long brown coat. Definitely dream worthy.

But, his hotness was irrelevant at this time. Right now he was just an obstacle keeping Lissa and I from the car and our freedom. I realized the people behind us had caught up as the steps slowed. Off to the sides, I detected more movement, more people closing in. God. They'd sent almost a dozen guardians to retrieve us. I couldn't believe it. The queen herself didn't travel with that many.

I cursed the weakness in my body as I kept Lissa behind me and away from the man who appeared to be the leader. In my state I knew I couldn't take him, but my instinct would always be to protect Lissa.

"Leave her alone," I growled at him. "Don't touch her."

His face was unreadable like all guardians, but he held out his hands in what I assume he meant to be a calming gesture, like I was some animal to be sedated.

"I'm not going to –"

He took a step forward and I acted out of instinct. He was too close, so I attacked. Leaping out in an offensive maneuver that was uncoordinated due to my dizziness. He was a skilled guardian though, and man was he fast. He knocked me off as though brushing away a fly, and his hands slammed into me and sent me backwards. He most likely didn't mean to strike that hard – probably just intended to keep me away – but my lack of coordination meant I couldn't respond to the move and I started to fall. I cursed at myself and stealed myself for the landing. This was going to hurt.

Only it didn't.

Just as quickly as he'd blocked me, he reached out and caught my arm, keeping me upright. As I steadied myself and tried to clear my head again, I noticed he was staring at me. Well, staring at my neck. It took me a few moments to get what he was staring at. Then, slowly my free hand reached up to the side of my throat and touched the wound Lissa had made earlier. I felt stickiness against my fingertips so I wasn't surprised to see blood on my fingertips as I pulled them back. Embarassed, I shook my hair so it fell around my face and covered my neck. Those dark eyes of his lingered on the now covered bite a moment longer before they met mine. I jerked out of his hold and met his eyes with as much bravado as I could muster. He let me go, though I knew without a doubt he could have restrained me if he'd wanted. Fighting the dizziness, I backed toward Lissa again and braced myself for another attack. Suddenly, her hand caught hold of mine. "Rose" she said quietly. "Don't"

I didn't want to back down, but the calming thoughts that came to me through the bond were effectual, just like the fact that we were hopelessly outnumbered in my current state. Even I knew struggling would be pointless. I sighed and allowed my body to relax, sagging slightly against Lissa.

Sensing my resignation, the man stepped forward, his attention now on Lissa. He managed a surprisingly graceful bow, considering his height. "My name is Dimitri Belikov," he said. A faint Russian accent to his words. "I've come to take you back to St. Vladimir's Academy, Princess."


End file.
